Structures are subject to uncertainty parameters that need to be considered in the
design process. Reliability Based Design Optimization (RBDO) has become a
powerful tool in achieving the optimum design when considering uncertainty
data. In this work RBDO is applied in two different optimization approaches:
size and topology optimization. There is a wide set of methods to solve RBDO
problems, among them RIA (Reliability Index Approach), PMA (Performance
Measure Approach) and SORA (Reliability Optimization and Reliability
Assessment) are the most common in literature. For this work the SORA method
has been chosen because it is easy to combine with commercial structural
analysis and optimization codes due to the uncoupled nature of its formulation. It
has been programmed in a MatLab code which manages the calls to structural
analysis and optimization software needed to solve the RBDO problem. Finally,
three application examples are used to compare the designs obtained with and
without a probabilistic approach.
Keywords: RBDO, reliability index, size optimization, topology optimization,
probability of failure.